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The new Mirvish Village is growing on the site where the Honest Ed's discount store used to stand on the southwest corner of Bathurst and Bloor streets in Toronto's Annex neighbourhood. Vancouver-based Westbank Corp and Peterson are co-developing the property, which will eventually come to include five major new buildings, all to be interconnected at their base, plus several smaller ones. The towers have topped off now, so the five cranes have been put to hoisting cladding components of late, and that work has made significant progress.
Our last update on the project in August of 2021 shared that cladding work had begun to take off, with the base buildings having been fully clad — sometimes in contrasting materials — and the towers starting to receive cladding on their lower levels. Now, although cladding work is still not complete, some walls of some of the buildings are now clad to their highest level.
Where cladding has been applied, glazing is also being installed, as can be seen in the images above and below. Meanwhile, balcony guards are still to be installed.
From another vantage point, where there is more than one type of cladding applied, a bit of an optical illusion has come together, making it look as if two or more buildings are close-standing individual towers, when in fact they are not. Although the contrast of the cladding types makes the buildings appear this way, they are in fact integrated by interior hallways.
There are about six different cladding styles that can now be seen upon the buildings of Mirvish Village, from warm tones of grey, to white, and even blue and slate coloured precast panels. As the buildings are all conjoined, the differentiating colours of cladding help break up what would otherwise be an overwhelming bulk of massing. Not only is the result more pleasing to the eye, but the various cladding types will also contribute to integrating and complimenting the 24 restored victorian heritage buildings on Markham Street that are part of the development (not shown in these images), and which are currently covered up to protect them from the ongoing construction.
Designed by Vancouver's Henriquez Partners Architects working with Toronto's Diamond Schmitt Architects, the complex's towers rise 13, 19, 24, 25, and 26 storeys, while the restoration of the lower-rise Victorian buildings of Markham Street into new shops and restaurants are being overseen by heritage specialists ERA Architects.
All units within the five buildings will be rentals, over a third of which will be affordable. In total, the new buildings will bring 916 residential rental suites within a short walk of Bathurst subway station, plus over 225,000 ft² of retail, office, and community use spaces at or near ground level. New public green spaces are also coming along with many public realm enhancements, including a sheltered market area.
More information on this development will come soon, but in the meantime, you can learn more from our Database file for the project, linked below. If you'd like, you can join in on the conversation in the associated Project Forum thread, or leave a comment in the space provided on this page.
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